One person was injured in a snowmobile accident in Martell Township on Saturday. According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, 25yr old Conner Poling of Hudson was operating a snowmobile on private property when he struck a field divot and was ejected. Poling was med-flighted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with undetermined injuries.
The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include approval of the next USDA Rural Development payments for the Wastewater Treatment Plant and approval of using undesignated general fund dollars to cover the remaining costs for the demolition of 147 West Hudson Street. Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at the Marten Center in Mondovi.
Due to extreme weather in the southern US, shipments of Moderna vaccine from the federal distribution centers have been delayed. The Pierce County Health Department does not have vaccines for this week currently, nor do they know when our shipment will arrive. The Department announced they will not be able to take appointments for first doses online or via phone at this time. Please check the Pierce County Health Department's scheduling website later in the week. If you are scheduled to receive a second dose this week, the department will contact you if your appointment needs to be rescheduled.
The Red Wing City Council has fired its police chief in what the council calls a “disciplinary action.” Chief Roger Pohlman had held the position for the last eight years. Council members sent a letter to the former chief alleging he failed to meet “performance expectations” and they had a “lack of trust” that he supported city initiatives. Pohlman was accused of portraying council members as “anti-police.” The Friday firing came on a vote of six-to-one. Following the vote, Red Wing Mayor Mike Wilson told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he believes the firing was a mistake. Just before last week’s vote, several people living in Red Wing wrote an open letter expressing support for the chief, calling him “a true public servant.”
Sheriffs across Wisconsin remind you -- they won't call you about outstanding warrants, or take payments over the phone. Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald says this is just the latest round of phone scams. If you get such a call, the best course of action is to hang up immediately. Never provide the caller with any personal information.
For a second straight day, there were no deaths due to COVID-19 reported in Wisconsin. On Monday, the U.S. as a whole surpassed 500,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic. In Wisconsin though, the state Department of Health Services reported no deaths for a second day on Monday. DHS reported 423 new cases, and as of Monday afternoon, the seven-day average percent positive by the test was to 2-point-6 percent, the lowest in nearly a year.
The capital budget proposal released by Governor Tony Evers Monday includes two-point-four-billion dollars for Wisconsin building projects. One-billion would go to the University of Wisconsin System for things like a new Engineering Building on the Madison campus. The Association of General Contractors says for even million dollars spent in construction, 12 jobs are supported. The governor says that means his proposal would support 29-thousand jobs for the Wisconsin economy. The State Building Commission will vote on Evers’ plan next month. If approved, it would move on to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee.
Dominion Voting Systems is seeking more than one-point-three-billion dollars in a defamation lawsuit against MyPillow and Mike Lindell, the Minnesota-based company's C-E-O. The lawsuit seeks damages for the voting machine company and claims Lindell made-up claims about the company, blaming it for President Donald Trump's loss in the presidential election and alleging that its systems were easily manipulated. In its complaint, one of the nation’s largest makers of voting machines cites a number of statements made by Lindell during media appearances, social media posts, and a two-hour film that claimed to prove widespread voter fraud.
Workers at Minnesota's largest meat-processing plants who filed for worker's compensation after contracting COVID-19 say they haven't been paid yet. The facilities where some of the state's biggest outbreaks have filed 935 claims. Local worker's compensation attorney John Malone with Malone & Atchison says it seems the issue is that meat plant managers are applying a blanket policy, rather than individually judging each case.
Donations for the Special Olympics are still being accepted through the 2021 Polar Plunge in Eau Claire. Saturday people gathered in Pinehurst Park for sledding, snowshoeing, or walking and raised more than nine-thousand-dollars. Events in the past saw participants diving into icy water for donations, but not this year because of the pandemic.
Officials at the Apostle Island National Lakeshore say poor ice conditions will keep visitors out of the ice caves again. They say Lake Superior ice near the caves is unstable and rough. The coronavirus pandemic is another factor. Lake Superior is only about 50-percent covered as of last weekend. Climate change is warming the big lake, making access to the caves a rare event. They were last-opened to the public six winters ago.
Fire investigators in northwestern Wisconsin are trying to determine how a double-fatal house fire got starting early Saturday morning. Both victims were children, though their ages and names haven’t been released. The Washburn County Sheriff’s Office was called to the location in Minong at about 4:00 a-m. A private memorial service for the victims was held Sunday. The family says it doesn’t have insurance to cover the losses. A GoFundMePage has a goal of 25-thousand dollars to help with funeral costs and other expenses. Clothing donations are also be collected for the family.
The Wisconsin State Patrol says two children were riding in a car with a driver suspected of operating while intoxicated Saturday night. The trooper says he conducted a traffic stop because 34-year-old Jess A. Drost of Medford was speeding. The trooper says he detected the odor of marijuana and Drost was given a field sobriety test. He was arrested for O-W-I and possession of T-H-C and drug paraphernalia. In the car with Drost were a woman and two children, ages six and 12.
Crown Point County in northwestern Indiana wants its money back. The county is demanding repayment of more than 30-thousand dollars from Green Bay-based REDI Transports after a fugitive escaped while being extradited to Texas. The money would cover the expenses incurred during a two-week manhunt for fugitive Leon Taylor. He was finally recaptured in late December in East Chicago. Taylor managed to get free while the van was stopped in Gary, Indiana December 14th. The 22-year-old Hammond, Indiana man is a suspect in a Chicago murder.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has dismissed a request from the D-N-R to stop the wolf hunt scheduled to begin today (Monday). The Department of Natural Resources was appealing a court order requiring that hunt to be held this month. The appeals court ruled the order wasn’t a final judgment so it has no jurisdiction over any appeal. The wolf hunt is scheduled to run through Sunday. The deadline to apply for permits ended Saturday at midnight. The guidelines will allow up to 200 animals to be harvested this week.
U-S Senator Amy Klobuchar says misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine is spreading on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter – and it’s creating consequences. People are deciding not to get the shots based on what they’re reading online. The Minnesota Democrat urged the public to only follow medical advice from credible sources during a Sunday news conference at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Klobuchar says she has urged many online platforms to remove misleading information. She says about one-billion dollars in the COVID-19 relief package could go to set-up a “misinformation task force” at the Department of Homeland Security. She says the bad info on social media needs to be dealt with.
When Canada shut its border to visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 120 or so people living in the Northwest Angle were cut off from the rest of Minnesota. Now, they’ve done something. With the Lake of the Woods frozen over, a 22-mile ice road has been built across Big Traverse Bay, connecting Warroad to the south end of the Angle. Ice roads aren’t unique in Minnesota, but they usually aren’t 22 miles long. This one cost 75-thousand dollars to build. The people behind the project have sold 400 round-trip season passes for 120 dollars each. Owners of resorts on Flag and Oak islands are hoping they can break even by the end of the winter season.
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